Judith 14:1-5: a reflection

1Judith said to them, “Hear me now, my kindred, and take this head, and hang it upon the battlement of your wall. 2It will be, so soon as the morning appears, and the sun comes up on the earth, you shall each take up his weapons of war, and every valiant man of you go out of the city. You shall set a captain over them, as though you would go down to the plain toward the watch of the children of Asshur; but you men shall not go down. 3These will take up their full armor, and shall go into their camp and rouse up the captains of the army of Asshur. They will run together to Holofernes’ tent. They won’t find him. Fear will fall upon them, and they will flee before your face. 4You men, and all that inhabit every border of Israel, shall pursue them and overthrow them as they go. 5But before you do these things, summon Achior the Ammonite to me, that he may see and know him that despised the house of Israel, and that sent him to us, as it were to death.

Having done the dangerous deed, Judith calmly directs the people of her besieged town: hang the enemy general's head on the wall, arm yourselves at dawn and make as if to attack, and when the enemy soldiers run to rouse their commander and find him dead, panic will seize them and they will flee. And so it happens. The vast army that had terrified the town collapses in confusion the moment its head is gone, routed not by superior force but by the removal of the one they depended on.

Notice how fragile the overwhelming threat turned out to be. The army besieging the town had seemed unstoppable, a force far beyond the strength of the little town to resist. Yet its whole strength hung on one man, and once he fell, the intimidating host dissolved into panic. What had loomed as invincible was more brittle than it appeared, and God delivered his people through the courage of one unlikely woman rather than through armies.

There is encouragement here about the things that intimidate us. What looms over us as overwhelming, the threat that seems too strong to face, is often more fragile than it appears, its power resting on foundations that God can remove in a moment. And God delights to deliver through unexpected, overlooked means, the courage of one person, rather than through overwhelming force. When you face what seems an unbeatable threat, remember Judith's town: the intimidating host can collapse, and God can deliver through the most unlikely means. Do not measure the outcome by the size of the threat, but by the God who delivers.

Lord, the army that terrified Judith's town collapsed the moment its head was gone, and you delivered through the courage of one unlikely woman. When I face what seems an overwhelming, unbeatable threat, remind me that it may be more fragile than it appears, and that you can deliver through the most unexpected means. Help me measure the outcome not by the size of the threat but by you, who deliver your people.